Event narrative (NOAA)
Lightning strikes on Saturday night, May 5th, ignited two 11 acre and 21 acre fires on Bugaboo Island in the southern Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge (southwest of Stephen Foster State Park). On the 8th through 10th high winds around large coastal low pressure system quickly resulted in extreme fire spread in southern Ware and Clinch counties in Southeast Georgia (The Georgia Bugaboo Scrub Fire). The fires combined and raced southward toward Baker and Columbia counties in north Florida becoming the Florida Bugaboo Scrub Fire. Due to close proximity to large populated areas, most significantly Lake City, Florida the fire generated large media attention and became the dominant fire between the two Bugaboo Scrub complexes. By late on the 8th Georgia State Road 94 and Florida State Road
Other notable wildfire events in Florida
Source: NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database. Deaths and injuries are those NOAA classifies as direct. Damage is the reporting office's estimate at the time and is not inflation-adjusted. This is a catalogue record, not a forecast.